IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics
Low-Power Fast Partial Firmware Update Technique of On-Chip Flash Memory for Reliable Embedded IoT Microcontroller
Summary :
IoT devices operate with a battery and have embedded firmware in flash memory. If the embedded firmware is not kept up to date, there is a possibility of problems that cannot be linked with other IoT networks, so it is necessary to maintain the latest firmware with frequent updates. However, because firmware updates require developers and equipment, they consume manpower and time. Additionally, because the device must be active during the update, a low-power operation is not possible due to frequent flash memory access. In addition, if an unexpected interruption occurs during an update, the device is unavailable and requires a reliable update. Therefore, this paper aims to improve the reliability of updates and low-power operation by proposing a technique of performing firmware updates at high speed. In this paper, we propose a technique to update only a part of the firmware stored in nonvolatile flash memory without pre-processing to generate delta files. The firmware is divided into function blocks, and their addresses are collectively managed in a separate area called a function map. When updating the firmware, only the new function block to be updated is transmitted from the host downloader, and the bootloader proceeds with the update using the function block stored in the flash memory. Instead of transmitting the entire new firmware and writing it in the memory, using only function block reduces the amount of resources required for updating. Function-blocks can be called indirectly through a function map, so that the update can be completed by modifying only the function map regardless of the physical location. Our evaluation results show that the proposed technique effectively reduces the time cost, energy consumption, and additional memory usage overhead that can occur when updating firmware.
- Publication
- IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics Vol.E104-C No.6 pp.226-236
- Publication Date
- 2021/06/01
- Publicized
- 2020/12/08
- Online ISSN
- 1745-1353
- DOI
- 10.1587/transele.2020LHP0001
- Type of Manuscript
- Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Low-Power and High-Speed Chips)
- Category
Authors
Jisu KWON
Kyungpook National University
Moon Gi SEOK
Nanyang Technological University
Daejin PARK
Kyungpook National University
Keyword
Latest Issue
Copyrights notice of machine-translated contents
The copyright of the original papers published on this site belongs to IEICE. Unauthorized use of the original or translated papers is prohibited. See IEICE Provisions on Copyright for details.
Cite this
Copy
Jisu KWON, Moon Gi SEOK, Daejin PARK, "Low-Power Fast Partial Firmware Update Technique of On-Chip Flash Memory for Reliable Embedded IoT Microcontroller" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics,
vol. E104-C, no. 6, pp. 226-236, June 2021, doi: 10.1587/transele.2020LHP0001.
Abstract: IoT devices operate with a battery and have embedded firmware in flash memory. If the embedded firmware is not kept up to date, there is a possibility of problems that cannot be linked with other IoT networks, so it is necessary to maintain the latest firmware with frequent updates. However, because firmware updates require developers and equipment, they consume manpower and time. Additionally, because the device must be active during the update, a low-power operation is not possible due to frequent flash memory access. In addition, if an unexpected interruption occurs during an update, the device is unavailable and requires a reliable update. Therefore, this paper aims to improve the reliability of updates and low-power operation by proposing a technique of performing firmware updates at high speed. In this paper, we propose a technique to update only a part of the firmware stored in nonvolatile flash memory without pre-processing to generate delta files. The firmware is divided into function blocks, and their addresses are collectively managed in a separate area called a function map. When updating the firmware, only the new function block to be updated is transmitted from the host downloader, and the bootloader proceeds with the update using the function block stored in the flash memory. Instead of transmitting the entire new firmware and writing it in the memory, using only function block reduces the amount of resources required for updating. Function-blocks can be called indirectly through a function map, so that the update can be completed by modifying only the function map regardless of the physical location. Our evaluation results show that the proposed technique effectively reduces the time cost, energy consumption, and additional memory usage overhead that can occur when updating firmware.
URL: https://global.ieice.org/en_transactions/electronics/10.1587/transele.2020LHP0001/_p
Copy
@ARTICLE{e104-c_6_226,
author={Jisu KWON, Moon Gi SEOK, Daejin PARK, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics},
title={Low-Power Fast Partial Firmware Update Technique of On-Chip Flash Memory for Reliable Embedded IoT Microcontroller},
year={2021},
volume={E104-C},
number={6},
pages={226-236},
abstract={IoT devices operate with a battery and have embedded firmware in flash memory. If the embedded firmware is not kept up to date, there is a possibility of problems that cannot be linked with other IoT networks, so it is necessary to maintain the latest firmware with frequent updates. However, because firmware updates require developers and equipment, they consume manpower and time. Additionally, because the device must be active during the update, a low-power operation is not possible due to frequent flash memory access. In addition, if an unexpected interruption occurs during an update, the device is unavailable and requires a reliable update. Therefore, this paper aims to improve the reliability of updates and low-power operation by proposing a technique of performing firmware updates at high speed. In this paper, we propose a technique to update only a part of the firmware stored in nonvolatile flash memory without pre-processing to generate delta files. The firmware is divided into function blocks, and their addresses are collectively managed in a separate area called a function map. When updating the firmware, only the new function block to be updated is transmitted from the host downloader, and the bootloader proceeds with the update using the function block stored in the flash memory. Instead of transmitting the entire new firmware and writing it in the memory, using only function block reduces the amount of resources required for updating. Function-blocks can be called indirectly through a function map, so that the update can be completed by modifying only the function map regardless of the physical location. Our evaluation results show that the proposed technique effectively reduces the time cost, energy consumption, and additional memory usage overhead that can occur when updating firmware.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transele.2020LHP0001},
ISSN={1745-1353},
month={June},}
Copy
TY - JOUR
TI - Low-Power Fast Partial Firmware Update Technique of On-Chip Flash Memory for Reliable Embedded IoT Microcontroller
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics
SP - 226
EP - 236
AU - Jisu KWON
AU - Moon Gi SEOK
AU - Daejin PARK
PY - 2021
DO - 10.1587/transele.2020LHP0001
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics
SN - 1745-1353
VL - E104-C
IS - 6
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics
Y1 - June 2021
AB - IoT devices operate with a battery and have embedded firmware in flash memory. If the embedded firmware is not kept up to date, there is a possibility of problems that cannot be linked with other IoT networks, so it is necessary to maintain the latest firmware with frequent updates. However, because firmware updates require developers and equipment, they consume manpower and time. Additionally, because the device must be active during the update, a low-power operation is not possible due to frequent flash memory access. In addition, if an unexpected interruption occurs during an update, the device is unavailable and requires a reliable update. Therefore, this paper aims to improve the reliability of updates and low-power operation by proposing a technique of performing firmware updates at high speed. In this paper, we propose a technique to update only a part of the firmware stored in nonvolatile flash memory without pre-processing to generate delta files. The firmware is divided into function blocks, and their addresses are collectively managed in a separate area called a function map. When updating the firmware, only the new function block to be updated is transmitted from the host downloader, and the bootloader proceeds with the update using the function block stored in the flash memory. Instead of transmitting the entire new firmware and writing it in the memory, using only function block reduces the amount of resources required for updating. Function-blocks can be called indirectly through a function map, so that the update can be completed by modifying only the function map regardless of the physical location. Our evaluation results show that the proposed technique effectively reduces the time cost, energy consumption, and additional memory usage overhead that can occur when updating firmware.
ER -
English
